US$16m historic house in San Francisco up for sale

New York

IN 1906, Elizabeth Leslie Meyerfeld married Leon Lazare Roos. Her father, who owned a chain of theatres, promised the couple a new house.

Under any circumstance, a new house would be a substantial wedding present. But given that the newlyweds were in San Francisco, a city that had just seen 56 per cent of its population rendered homeless by an earthquake and the resultant fire, the area's real estate was in a particularly acute state of flux.

"This was right after the earthquake," said Mark Roos, the couple's grandson. "There was a lot of movement from the Van Ness neighbourhood (which was used as a firebreak during the earthquake) to the Presidio."

The couple chose a plot of land on Jackson Street. It "was the fir…